Secret Agent Gal Movie Reviews

The Gloucester 18: teen moms choose rough road - 4 stars

 
 

The Gloucester 18 reveals the true story of teens who got pregnant during the 2007-08 school year at Gloucester High School in Massachusetts. Controversy erupted amidst rumors of a “pregnancy pact.” This documentary tells the girls’ less sensational, but still troubling story.

Director John Michael Williams’ film has no narration or overt editorializing. Aside from brief tirades by Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly and a local radio host, the tone is intent and balanced. This is a documentary that explores a hot-button issue with objectivity and genuine concern.

The Gloucester 18 debunks the myth of a “pregnancy pact” which was widely reported by national and international news programs. The pact story was also exploited in a made-for-television film that upset many Gloucester residents.

Most of these girls did not know each other when they became pregnant, we are told. Some became friends afterwards and shared mutual support, according to nurse practitioner Kim Daley.

New moms and dads, grandparents, counselors and health providers speak in a series of interviews. By skillfully excerpting interviews around an issues-based narrative, Williams creates a sense of urgency.

Wisely, the director also visits the cities of Lowell and Springfield. Teen pregnancy rates were higher there in 2009. The film asserts that this is not just Gloucester’s issue, but a continuing national dilemma.

Teen moms interviewed are upbeat at first. Some are quiet. One girl is coached by her mom on how to answer the interviewer. Eventually, they share mixed feelings and regrets.  

Seventeen-year-old Leslie from Lowell got pregnant at age 15. She never went to high school. “It’s hard,” she says, smiling through her tears. “It’s not fun changing diapers, waking up.” Her son’s father abandoned them. Leslie braids hair to pay for diapers.

“It’s the new thing” says Leslie of her friends in Lowell. “Everyone’s havin’ kids.” Young moms are isolated from the teen community as they are required to stay at home to care for their babies, says Dr. Brian Orr.

High school counselors and health providers speak out. “I needed somebody to love me unconditionally, and someone who I could love unconditionally,” pregnant teens often tell them.

Several counselors say they were required to follow an “abstinence only” model. They were not allowed to prescribe contraceptives to high school students. Some teens used birth control from their own physicians, and became pregnant anyway.

The Gloucester teens beam before the camera. It is their moment. They hold their babies. It’s rough but they get by, they say. Motherhood gives their lives meaning and purpose. It’s their business, a friend of one mom says. The teens are just starting their families sooner than most.

Sarah smiles radiantly, holding her second baby. She lives in a cooperative household with her children’s father and his brother’s family. Another girl works part-time at Dunkin’ Donuts. A teen father works in a bait yard to support his new son.  

Two of the girls are second generation teen mothers. Another faces her family’s legacy of domestic violence. Some new moms finish high school. Others drop out.

Williams intersperses frames of smiling girls with sobering statistics. As of 2009, 750,000 teenage girls become pregnant in the United States every year. Teenage pregnancy costs the U.S. more than $9.1 billion a year. The U.S. has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy of any developed country.

The Gloucester 18 covers a controversial issue with unique objectivity and insight. It avoids political and religious debate. “Doing the right thing” and making the best of difficulties is a common theme.

The fate of several teens and their babies is revealed. Some girls live with their parents after giving birth, grateful for the back-up child care. One teen without family support seeks public assistance. Several babies suffer health problems.

Tiny babies nestle in their mothers’ arms as the camera rolls. Concern for their well-being and future drives this powerful human interest film.

If you like The Gloucester 18, you might enjoy:  Precious; Mother and Child.

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The Gloucester 18    2009  /  NR  /  1 hour, 7 min

Cast Overview:  Dr. Brian Orr, Kim Daley, Ray Lamont, Gail McCarthy

Director:  John Michael Williams

Genre:  Documentary

The Insider: Russell Crowe fights Big Tobacco in real-life thriller *****

 

A whistleblower (Russell Crowe) forces Big Tobacco to reveal the dangers of cigarette smoking in the fact-based thriller The Insider (1999).

With non-stop suspense, the film follows tobacco scientist Jeffrey Wigand (Crowe) and CBS news producer Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino) as they create a 60 Minutes expose. Wigand faces death threats and loses his job and family. Bergman challenges the network and legendary newsman Mike Wallace (Christopher Plummer) to air the segment despite litigation.

Director Michael Mann’s film is in the spotlight this week as five tobacco companies filed a lawsuit in federal court Tuesday. They are challenging part of the 2009 law which imposed federal regulations on the tobacco industry. The F.D.A. has mandated that they print graphic warning images on cigarette packages as of September 2012.

The Insider is an iconic look at American journalism. Like All the President’s Men (1976), it explores moral dilemmas in journalism and in life with outstanding character development and pacing. The relationship between a journalist and his source is intimately explored.

Wigand reluctantly tells his story and is sued by Big Tobacco for breaking a confidentiality agreement. Bergman assures Wigand that he is making a tremendous difference by speaking out. According to HealthNews.com, “Tobacco smoke contains a deadly mixture of more than 7,000 chemicals and compounds, of which hundreds are toxic and at least 70 cause cancer. Smoking causes more than 85 percent of lung cancers. . . . One in three cancer deaths in the U.S. is tobacco-related.”

A whistleblower on the edge of nervous exhaustion, Wigand cannot ignore the serious public health hazard. Before speaking with Bergman he warns a tobacco company executive about “ammonia chemistry.” He’s incredulous when the company chooses profit over safety.

Crowe’s acting is raw and fully dimensional, foreshadowing his Oscar-nominated portrayal of Dr. John Nash in A Beautiful Mind (2001). Wigand loses virtually everything: his career, his reputation, his wife and children, and his home.

Crowe becomes the consummate hero as The Insider never flinches from looking at personal agony and danger. Wigand rails against Bergman. “I have to put my family's welfare on the line here, my friend! And what are you puttin' up? You're puttin' up words!” he shouts.

 

Pacino is a pit bull here as Bergman fights to air the 60 Minutes interview. “You pay me to go get guys like Wigand, to draw him out. To get him to trust us, to get him to go on television. I do. I deliver him. He sits. He talks. . . . Is it newsworthy? Yes. Are we gonna air it? Of course not. Why? Because he's not telling the truth? No. Because he is telling the truth.”

Privately, Bergman worries that his source has sacrificed in vain. His wife (Lindsay Crouse) prompts him to re-examine his personal and professional values. Forced to take a leave from work, Bergman walks along the beach near his vacation home. Ocean waves roll in. It’s a timeless image of a man with all the perks of success pausing to breathe and re-evaluate his career. This is one of Pacino’s many memorable characters, reminiscent of Lt. Vincent Hanna in Heat (1995) and Arthur Kirkland in … And Justice for All (1979).

Plummer portrays Mike Wallace as ego-driven and power-hungry, a journalist whose will to investigate powerful special interests is compromised. Plummer conveys charisma and gravitas as the 60 Minutes star. Wallace objected to how he was portrayed when the film was released.

Diane Venora (who played Al Pacino’s wife Justine in Heat), gives a brief but moving performance as Liane Wigand. Philip Baker Hall plays legendary investigative journalist turned CBS executive producer Don Hewitt. Hewitt died in 2009.

Finally the full interview appears on 60 Minutes, but only after The New York Times reveals CBS’ financial motives to suppress the story. The Wall Street Journal clears Wigand’s name after a tobacco industry smear campaign. Wigand reveals that the manipulation of ammonia causes addiction as nicotine is more rapidly absorbed into the lung. This boosts its affects on the brain and central nervous system, he said.

Mann wrote the excellent screenplay with Eric Roth. Dante Spinotti’s cinematography is superb, especially during a scene where a suicidal Wigand sits alone in a hotel room. In a panoramic shot, the mural-covered walls swirl around the hero. Music is used as dialogue to convey deeper meanings.

The Insider was nominated for seven Oscars including Best Picture, Best Actor (Crowe) and Best Director. Wigand went on to teach high school science and was nationally recognized for his work in the classroom. Bergman became a producer for the PBS show Frontline. He’s also a professor at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley.

If you like The Insider, you might enjoy: Page One: Inside the New York Times; The Soloist.

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The Insider     1999  /  R  /  2 hours, 35 min

Cast Overview:  Al Pacino, Russell Crowe, Christopher Plummer, Michael Gambon, Diane Venora, Bruce McGill, Philip Baker Hall, Lindsay Crouse, Gina Gershon

Director:  Michael Mann

Genre:  Thriller, Drama, Biography